Propeller push rod or tube and slide transmission



Ama! M, w31. T. M. FINLEY lOOM PROPELLER PUSH ROD OR TUBE AND SLIDE TRANSMISSION Filed July 13, 1927 3 Sheets-Sheet l A .I'lllllk PROPELLER PUSH ROD lOR TUBE AND SLIDE TRANSMISSION 'Filed July 13, 1927 3 Sheets-Sheet 2 I NV EN TOR.

BVMW? ATTORNEY.

T. M. FINLEY April 14, 1931.

PROPELLER PUSH ROD OR TUBE AND SLIDE TRANSMISSION 1927 3 Sheets-Sheet 5 Filed July I3 Patented Apr. 14, 1931 raar-an THOMAS M. FINLEY, OF ST. LOUIS, MISSOURI PROIELLER PUSH ROD 0R TUBE AND SLIDE TRANSMISSION Application filed July 13, 1927. Serial No. 205,439.

The invention relates to a propeller push rod or tube and slide transmission.

It has been found that it is very benecial to all classes of aircraft to reduce parasite resistance'by placing the motors inside thev lfuselage or inside the hull of the machine and exposing only the propellers and driving means of thesame to the open air.

Under the old plan of a revolving shaft and gears for transmitting motion from the motor to the propeller, there are many evils that largely dissipate the benets derived from such an ar angement Aeronautical motors are both powerful and fast, and to transmit the power from them with their excessive speed through a revolving shaft and gears requires a very heavy shaft in order to sustain the terrific strain. It also requires bearings that are difficult to oil and' to keep cool in their inaccessible positions, while at the propeller there necessarily must be placed gears of some kind which are inaccessible, noisy, sustain great strains and wear, and are wholly undependable, and besidesthese, there is also a heavy loss of power sustained in the transmission of same through such gearing.

Itis anobject of the present invention to provide a simple, practical and eilicient propeller slide and push rod transmission of strong, durable and comparatively inexpensive construction adapted to be used without heavy revolving shafts and the weight, wear and heat incident to the same, and to dispense with all gears at the propellers,

and at the same time enable the motor or motors to be located within the hull or fuselage, with the slideV mechanism for converting the rotary motion 4of the motor into a reciprocatingmotion easily accessible for lubrication, adjustments, repairs, and so forth.

Afurther object of the invention is to eliminate the troublesome gears. and the Vwear and noise and strain incident to the use of such gearing, and to substitute therefor two relatively light push rods or tubes in which the stresses are tension and compression only.

With these and other objects in View, the 50 invention consists in the construction and novel combination and arrangement of parts hereinafter fully described, illustrated in the accompanying drawings and pointed out in the claims hereto appended, it being 5 understood that various changes in the form, proportion, and minor details of construction within the scope of the claims may be resorted to without departing from the spirit or sacrificing any of the advantages of the invention.

In the drawings .r

Figure l is a longitudinal sectional view, partly in elevation, of a propeller slide transmission constructed in accordance with this invention.

Fig. 2 is a similar view taken at right angles to Fig. l, the casing being omitted Fig. 3 is a transverse sectional view, taken substantially on the line 3-3 of Fig. l.

Fig. 4 is a front elevation of a flying machine provided with propeller slide transmissions, constructed in accordance with this invention.

Fig. 5 is an enlarged elevation partly in section of the structure shown in Fig. 4.

In the accompanying drawings in which is illustrated the preferred embodiment of the invention, 1 designates a motor shaft provided with a gear wheel 2 which meshes with a centrally arranged relatively large gear wheel 3 of a shaft 4 of the propeller slide transmission. The shaft for the propeller slide transmission has mounted on it at opposite sidesl of the centrally arranged S5 gear wheel 3, fly wheels 5 having wrist pins 6 which are eccentrically connected with the gear wheel 3 and which are arranged in a bearing 7 of a transversely movable slide 8 operating in a transverse guide 9 of the 90 andthe fly wheels' vconstitute crank elements andthe wrist pins 6 are 'arranged' `at I an angle` of 90. rlhe slidalolecross headsVA vroperate in guide grooves 11 of sidememhers 12 A'of substantially rectangular guiding frames. The guiding ramesf are.each "composed of Y parallel side bars 12 and @upper andlower transverse connecting bars inafter fully`v`r explain ed.. .The r, ,Y transverse slide, the longitudinally"slidalole cross head and! the" guidingy frame@ thev eccentric "elements are designed to be constructed sub-V stantiallyVV asshown V:and describedsin. my'fcosl pending application, Serial' No.fl2lfl4f1fled 7 July9,1 926 and noVv 'claim-1 isl made 1in fthe transmission mechanism7 per se,a's.suchl ini y entiongfor'ms.thesubject matter ofthesaid Y cop'ending-applicationrv Y' I. 1V

. A, .@Attheleftjhand side oitheupper portion 'gftionv-offa vmotor-.15,1lout it will loeapparent*V -that:.an'ygtype olmotorhavin'g a. rotary 'presentiV 'application [to the particular conl structionV i and'v .i arrangement of `[the 1, slide o; Fig.-2 of thedrawingis 4illustrated a porpewer lshaft -ma-yv'be employed and the. presi ent inventionwill transmitthe power lfrom su'chm'otor to La propellerlshavft 1 6 without employing :thefgearing v ordinarily used for f accomplishing this result. iWhen 'the' motor shaft rotates fthe gear wheel 2 which issuitably-i-ixed tothe motorsliat is rotated 'and 49 Y which constitutes 1. the intermediate "crank transmitsfrotary niotionyto the-gear wheel 3 l element ofthe. propeller slide transmission;

The gear wheel 3 rotates the/ shaft Z1 with z Y L thelcranlnelementsorjfly wheels l5v andthe -j wristpins whichconnect the central .andside i crank elements'reciprocate the slide 81 VtransyVersely 1 of the guiding frame land simul-ta neously :reciprocate "the cross. head1() longi-'I' tudinallyconvertingl the rotary 'niotion fof i Vgear. `.wheel and fly wheel results Ain a". uni-V form Ycontinuous Vrotary' movement of the shaft and 4freciproeating `movement 'of the z The {cross .f headsioifethexslide transmission vdevices are .connected :to theupperfends of pushrods or shafts: 17 whicligeitendthrough openings` 185 the;loottom tconnecting hars i or i fmemloers lli of the guiding frames' andthe l r1 vIn Fig. 4 ofthefaccompan upper ends yrigidly secured to the cross heads 1 in any desired manner. The; reciprocating and the lower ends. of the push rods are` equipped withV headsV 21 similar in construction to'piston heads and connected loy a pitman V22 withcrankelements of the propeller loepro'vided` with crank'bends ,in the accom,-

panying drawings central and side lywheels 23 --arejjemployed :havingj connectingY wrist pins 24'ar'ranged approximatelyat an angle of 90. t-The propeller shatt'lin the accompanying drawings vis shownin sections,rthe

lmannenv at one u end thereoi'.l Thefguides 19 whichfmay lbe of any! desired-5 number .i Vand of anypreterredfconstructioniguide' the' push rods yland prevent lateral movement r the `same andtenable the `push rods tolfrecip'rocate smoothlypand uniformlylWithout.zliahilityof being "swung under compression strainand Ashaft 16. Whilethe propeller shaft 16 mayy 13 and 14.: While the connecting Vloar's 13. 'and 14: are arranged at Vthe topV andfloottoml `of Vtheguidingframes as illustrated infFigs, Y '2 and fofftheffdrawings, it willhe under-1^- stood thattheprpeller slide transmission;. may be disposed infthe vertical jhorizontal or in inclined or '-angul'arpiositionasheref branchrtube's 27 with the cylinders. lThe hot-y tom loranch tubes' terminate Y, atY the Y :inner Yfaces of the Acylindersmand Vthe upper :and intermediate ybranclrtuloes which slubr-icate the guides have Sextensions128 whichzeXtend tothe inner guiding Vfacesof the Ysaid guides anlsupply vluloricant tothe same`V and to the push rods#4 1 The twin cylinders I and the' lubricating mea-ns `are designedi toV loe *mounted Awithin' al suitable supportingfivframe having tubular frame members -128 '2 as illustrated .inr Fig. l3 of v'thedrawings' and .the-supporting frame vor framework is housed within! a stream line casing29of tubular formation and :prefer-v alolyv composedrof two sides converging at the front end-s to la p'oint"andffhaving'fthe rearportions' lcurved inwardly fand united f'in rear: of. the framework.; The? 'streamline Vt-uloular ycasing*` which is adapted -to A reduce theA air resistance; to :al minimum and protect the push V'rod mechanism isgprovided at the lower.l end vwith a cylindrical-casing' '3 0 which houses; the f flyiwheelcrank elements ofthe propelleru shaft.

, yi-gkmwingsw theypropellerV sl1de"=and pu'shi rodi" transmis-V sion; 1s "indicated as applied' L to aan airship iro izo

.comprising a'hody "31 `,having ailongitudinal `loo'ttomfof thefA body atr'opposite sides of! the 1 channelfor passage #with uselages 33 in.` whichjfare 1 Varranged the motors 'ffor 'ieper-ating A driving propellers f Blandf yarranged one* 'above-'the-iothenat the Apassage'".orfchan! nel of the body of the Hying machine. The slide transmissions shown in Fig. 4 are arranged at an acute angle to each other and are connected with the shaft of the lower propeller 34. A central vertical brace 37 connects the housing of the upper and lower propellers 34 and braces the same.

Y The casings 36 and 37 illustrated in Fig. 4 of the drawings are stream line casings corresponding in construction to the stream line casing illustrated in Fig. 3 of the drawing. The lower casings 36, which are arranged at an acute angle to each other, eX- tend downwardly and outwardly from the shaft of the lower propeller 34 to the fuselage 33, as diagrammatically illustrated in Fig. 4 of the drawing. Also the upper propeller is connected by opposite horizontal propeller slide transmissions with motors 38 located within the body of the airship or Hying machine at opposite sides of the channel or passage as illustrated diagrammatically in Fig. 4, and it will be clear from Fig. 4 of the drawings that the propellers may be supplied with power from one or a plurality of motors and that the motors may be arranged close to the propellers in the most advantageous position and that the propeller slide transmissions may be disposed at any angle with relation to the propeller shaft.

What is claimed is:

l. In a propeller slide transmission, the combination with a propeller shaft provided with crank elements, of a pair of reciprocating push rods, means for guiding the same, pitmen connecting the rods at one end with the crank elements of the propeller shaft, and a pair of slide transmission devices comprising longitudinally slidable cross heads connected to the other ends of the push rods, transversely movable slides carried by and guided on the cross heads, by wheels located at the outer sides of the transmission devices, a gear located between the said devices, and wrist pins e'ccentrically connecting the Hy wheels and the gear wheel and actuating the said slides.

2. In mechanism of the class described, the combination of a pair of slide transmission devices arranged side by side and comprising longitudinally slidable cross heads, transversely movable slides carried by and guided on the cross heads and motor operated eccentric elements connected with and actuating the slides, a pair of push rods rigidly connected at one end with and reciprocated by the cross heads, means for connecting the other ends of the push rods with a propeller shaft for rotating the same, and a pair of continuous cylinders receiving the push rods and provided with spaced guiding means for the same.

3. In mechanism of the class described, the combination of a pair of slide trans- `slidable cross heads,

mission devices comprising longitudinally transversely movable slides carried by and guided on the cross heads and motor operated eccentric elements connected with and actuating the sion devices comprising longitudinally slidable cross heads, transversely movable slides carried by and guided on the cross heads and motor operated eccentric elements connected with and actuating the slides, a pair of push rods connected at one end with and reciprocated by the cross heads, heads carried bythe other ends of the push rods, a pair of cylinders receiving the push rods, the said heads having a sliding fit in the cylinders, spaced guides arranged within the cylinders and receiving and guiding the push rods, longitudinal lubricating tubes having branch tubes connected with the cylinders for supplying lubricant to the same and the guides for lubricating the push rods and the heads, and means for connecting the heads with a shaft for rotating the same.

5. In mechanism of the class described, the combination of a pair of reciprocating push rods provided at one end with heads, cylinders receiving the push rods and in which the heads have a sliding Ht, a propeller shaft having crank elements consisting of spaced Hy wheels and wrist pins connecting the Hy wheels, and pitmen connecting the heads with the wrist pins.

6. In mechanism of the class described, the combination of a pair of reciprocating push rods provided at one end with heads, cylinders receiving the push rods and in which the heads have a sliding Ht, a propeller shaft having crank elements consisting of spaced Hy wheels and wrist pins connecting the Hy wheels, pitmen connecting the heads with the wrist pins, and tubular casings stream line in cross section housing the cylinders and having a cylindrical end section receiving the said crank elements.

7. In mechanism of the class described, the combination with a propeller shaft, of a plurality of pairs of propeller slide transmissions arranged at an angle to each other and each including a pair of reciprocating push rods, means for guiding the same, pitmen connecting the push rods with the propeller shaft, and motor actuated means for reciprocating the push rods.

8. In mechanism of the class described, the combination with a propeller shaft, of a :pushrrdds means for guiding lthe saune,v fpitimeuconnectng fthe gn'lslu` rods l:with the Ippopeuer' ShaJf-t motor 'actuated means forA lre;

VAGrippoeating the .pushv rods, and.V tubular c asr- 

